A video gaming system is an interactive electronic device which is used for playing video games on a personal computer.

The honor of being the first video console game lies with the Magnavox Odyssey which was invented by Ralph H. Baer in 1972. This game met with only moderate success and was soon succeeded in popularity by ‘Pong’ which was an arcade game which was released by Atari. Therefore, these two games along with their close successors like Odyssey 100, Odyssey 200, Smash and Sears which formed the first generation of video console gaming systems in the world. This was followed by the second generation games in 1976 and these were equipped with the Video Entertainment System (VES) which comprised of cartridges along with ROM to store instructions.

The third generation of the video console gaming systems emerged after a long hiatus in 1983 after having witnessed two major crashes. This generation marked the advent of the Japanese company Nintendo into the market in form of NES, Nintendo entertainment system in 1985 as well as its hit game the Super Mario Bros. The fourth generation did not witness the release of any particular game but saw an improvement in the storage capacity as well as technology with regards to the video console games. The fifth generation video console games were the Atari Jaguar, 3DO, the Nintendo 64, PlayStation by Sony as well as the Sega Saturn.

The sixth generation was probably the most revolutionary generation with regards to the video console gaming industry as it was during this generation that the DVDs were used for storage for the first time in the game media. It was also during this generation that three of the most popular video console games were released namely PS2 by Sony, Xbox by Microsoft and GameCube by Nintendo. These video console games were further advanced in the current generation namely the seventh generation but have still retained their popularity as the most sought-after gaming consoles in the world. The prominent gaming consoles in the seventh, which also happens to be the latest, generation are the PS3 by Sony, the Xbox 360 by Microsoft and the Wii by Nintendo.

Dave has been writing articles online for nearly 3 years now. Not only does this author specialize in health, fitness and relationships you can also check out his latest website on Left Handed Baseball Gloves

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It’s fair to say I’m not a big fan of consoles. They’re expensive, require too big of a time commitment to play, are hard to learn, and give me wicked motion sickness.

But I do respect that millions of people out there absolutely love them. Facts are facts right? In 2010 video console sales totaled 52.3 million units, and that’s a lot of units. And that’s just for one year. It’s estimated there are over 160 million consoles out there.

And that’s great business!

But think about this. In 2010 when video game console sales hit 52 million units, game ready cell phones skyrocketed at over 1.27 BILLION units. Analysts expect over 1.8 billion by 2014, or about 8 billion game ready cell phones on the planet by 2016.

That’s massively formidable.

When I do the math it just makes sense: 160 million units versus 8 billion units.

Here are the 5 reasons I think console gaming is dead:

Development costs are prohibitively expensive
Indie game developers find the development costs of dev stations, licensing, certification and more to be a major barrier to entry
Dev kits can cost as much as $50k each
Console games typically cost $1 million or more to make
Gatekeepers are restrictive about what gets out
The Big 3 (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft) are restrictive about what they’ll allow on their consoles
Rejection or delays can be very expensive
Player time commitment is expensive
Console games are about time commitment
In a tough economy, leisure time is a luxury
Pick up and play is a growing trend
Game consoles and games are pricey
Console units typically cost $300 and up
New games cost $60 with older titles priced between $20 and $50
Mobile gaming is far more accessible
Development costs are low
No need for licensing or certification
Dev kits are typically free
No restrictions on what can be produced and released
Low time commitment from players
Inexpensive to buy games, ranging from free to $2.99
By 2016, everyone on the planet will have a game ready phone
As consumers migrate to new platforms like iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) and Android (both tablet and phone) and these devices become more and more powerful, the consumer demand for content increases. Console developers clutch their devices tightly and seemingly ignore the coming wave, giving way to these new mobile platforms as the game development format of choice.

It won’t be long now, but unless console developers do something truly unique and innovative, console gaming will die out.

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